By Cati Porter | Contributing Columnist

“Have I ever told you I like teenagers?” begins an entry on my Substack. It was written after an interaction with a teenager in the poetry aisle of a local bookstore. For those of you who follow my work, you might already know that my book “small mammals” is almost exclusively about my interactions with teenagers, who are some of my very favorite people. Occasionally, if I’m lucky, I get to talk to teens about poetry. I’ve been invited onto high school and middle school campuses throughout the region, and have enjoyed coordinating Inlandia programs centering teen voices.

Enter the Teen Poet Laureate.

While watching Amanda Gorman recite her poetry during the 2020 Presidential Inauguration , my poet-friend-colleague Louisa Higgins and I began a

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